Online banking

How often you see a messy and confusing online banking of your bank and the frustration level doubles when you don not get what you desire to do. Now you will ask, is internet connection the right solution ? Answer is partially yes but this solution is only 20%. Other 80% goes in confusing layout structure, bad navigation, and non-usage of proper grouping of action items and information items.

Let?s get into detail on what end user wants from a perfect online banking point by point

1. Primary viewing ? views it and prints it

Firstly he wants to see what is his balance amount?

Secondly he wants to see the statement of account of what is debited and credited and when

Loans and other debts

Interest rates and bonuses

2. Secondary viewing ? does some action

Requests like bill pay

Fund transfers

Credit card bills

There are few more which comes as less used or not so frequently used services. But what end user wants is an interface where he can classify these points with ease and can figure out what is what. This way his mindset is freed and even if the connection is slow his frustration level goes considerably down after seeing such user friendly interface.

Now how to build that is the answer that every banking company should look into. Many of banks concentrate only on increasing their server speed and go high on their rich look and feel, but tend to forget the main aim of internet banking. Main motto of users is getting in do transactions, check transaction and get out. So increasing the server speed is not the only solution.

You will ask me then what should bankers do? Let?s go point by point

1. Make the account statement page very much PRECISE and BRIEF.

2. Group the information or viewing items together

3. Group the action items wherein users do transaction

4. Make the layout as simple as it is

5. Give an HELP on each screen so that even if the user needs any assistance, he can do it at the same page

6. Do not restrict the keyboard keys like back button or escape. I mean don?t show error screen or logged out screen on click of keyboard keys as this increases the frustration level of users

7. Don?t overeducate the users by giving too much of information. Be precise and simple.

8. Use as much of white portion in main transaction area as possible, as this would make the users easy to read and understand

9. Avoid complicated screens or layouts as this will make users think and commit errors

10. Display toll free numbers or telephone numbers as common links for users to connect to the bank

11. Use less of technology jargons as not all of them are technology savvy. Use the traditional method of displaying

12. So if you look into some usability factors in it then I think we can get an Customer Friendly and easy to understand, learn and most importantly use it more efficiently.

There are these small points that makes usage effective and people would love to actually use it and give examples of it to others. Trend setting in market comes through word of mouth publicity. No matter how much you spend on advertising and corporate annoucements, but what you give it to the people is what you get returns. If customers are happy and absolutely satisfied with the service then the bank has suceeded in their customer service.

Lets look at some of the principles of usability and user centered prnciple and synchronize it with the online banking. Main Role of a executer is to make the medium of Interactive and Digital media usable. If I talk about usable, I mean task to create a balance between the look (appearance) and Feel (Interaction) of any form. This is where User Interface comes into picture. We need to look is a way that a user can identify features quite easily and make use of technology to give him a feel good factor about the product or service. Lets look into importance of usability.

Ease of learning - How fast can a user who has never seen the user interface before learn it sufficiently well to accomplish basic tasks?

Efficiency of use - Once an experienced user has learned to use the system, how fast can he or she accomplish tasks?

Increases Memorability - If a user has used the system before, can he or she remember enough to use it effectively the next time or does the user have to start over again learning everything?

Error frequency and severity - How often do users make errors while using the system, how serious are these errors, and how do users recover from these errors?

Subjective satisfaction - How much does the user like using the system?

So, Usability measures the quality of a user's experience when interacting with a product or system?whether a Web site, or online banking module.

So I would conclude that if bankers keep their online banking simple and precise, users would love to use the site and most importantly will set up and good example to the bank.